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John Denver
John Denver was an American folk singer and environmentalist who was born in New Mexico and lived most of his life in Colorado, expressing his love for the state through songs like "Rocky Mountain High". His birth name was Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. He is perhaps best known for the songs "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", and the aforementioned "Rocky Mountain High", as well as many other hits, including "Annie's Song", "Fly Away", and "Back Home Again". In addition to music, John Denver has worked as an actor, humanitarian, and environmental activist. History Early Life (1943-1963) John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.) was born in Roswell, New Mexico to his mother Erma Louise and father Henry John Deutschendorf, Sr., who worked in the U.S. Air Force. Due to his father's military lifestyle, his family moved around a lot and lived in various places, inlcuding Arizona, Alabama, and Texas. Growing up, he had a single brother named Ron. He learned to play guitar during his childhood after his grandmother got him one for his 7th birthday, and another for his 11th. His family settled for some time in Texas, where he participated in Arlington Heights High School. During his third year in high school, he drove all the way to California to stay with some family friends, but his harsh father then flew out to California in a friend's jet and forced him to complete high school. He studied architecture at the Texas Tech University and sang in the folk group The Alpine Trio while pursuing architectural studies. He moved to Los Angeles in 1963, where he sang in folk clubs, and it was around this time that he changed his surname to Denver. Early Career (1965-1970) In 1965, John Denver joined the The Mitchell Trio, replacing the namesake of the band, Chad Mitchell. The trio later came to be known as Denver, Boise, and Johnson after the other two original band members left. John Denver himself left the band in 1969 to pursue a solo career, and his debút album, Rhymes & Reasons was released in October that year. He followed his first album with a '69-'70 tour of the Midwest, where he acquired a sizeable fan base, and released two more albums in 1970: Take Me to Tomorrow and Whose Garden Was This. Midlife (1971-1980) John Denver's next album—and perhaps his best known was ''Poems, Prayers & Promises, released in 1971 and featuring the single "Take Me Home, Country Roads". Rocky Mountain High was released the following year and became a top 10 hit, along with its title track. John Denver's Greatest Hits was released in 1973 and it reached #1 on the album charts, starting a three year streak of chart-topping albums for John Denver, continued by Back Home Again in 1974 and Windsong in 1975. Within this three-year period, he also hosted the Emmy Award-winning television special An Evening With John Denver, and the holiday special Rocky Mountain Christmas, as well as recording a Rocky Mountain Christmas studio album. Starting in 1973, John Denver performed at the yearly fundraising picnic for the Aspen Camp School for the Deaf, raising half of their annual operating budget. He released another two albums in 1976 and 1977; Spirit and I Want to Live, and he hosted the Grammy Awards in 1978. He hosted the Grammy Awards again in 1979, released his eponymous studio album, and performed "Rhymes & Reasons" at the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert in New York. In addition, he was a guest star on The Muppet Show and collaborated with them for the Christmas special A Christmas Together in December. He joined the Muppets again for a second Christmas special, ''Rocky Mountain Holiday'' in 1982. John Denver and his father, Henry John Deutschendorf, Sr. reconciled in the '70s, and in 1980 they hosted the documentary television special The Higher We Fly: The History of Flight together. Late Life (1981-1997) John Denver again hosted the Grammy Awards in 1983, 1984, and 1985. During the 1983 Grammy Awards ceremony finale, he was joined by Joan Baez, Donna Summer, and others for a performance of the songs "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Let the Sunshine In". In 1984, the president of ABC Sports asked him to compose the theme song for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, to which he happily obliged, writing the song "The Gold and Beyond", which he performed for the Olympians. In early 1985, John Denver wanted to be a member of the supergroup USA for Africa in the recording of the charity single "We Are the World", but he was turned down. During the 1985 Parents Music Resource Center hearing, John Denver testified before the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee opposing music censorship. He also went on tour in the Soviet Union that year. He released 7 studio albums throughout the '80s; in 1990 released both Earth Songs and The Flower That Shattered the Stone, and released Different Directions in 1991. After these albums, he took a several year break from recording to focus on environmental and humanitarian projects. In 1990 during Earth Day, he was the on-camera narrator for the environmental TV program In Partnership With Earth. In 1992, he founded the environmental group Plant-It 2020 (originally Plant-It 2000) with the main goal of reforestation around the world, as well as providing humanitarian aid to poor families. He toured in China and released the greatest hits album Homegrown that year as well. He released his autobiography, Take Me Home, in 1994. Early in 1997, John Denver filmed an episode for the seventeenth season of the PBS nature series, titled John Denver: Let This Be a Voice, which highlights some of the natural places that inspired many of his songs. It was aired in 1998. John Denver died on October 12, 1997 in an accident while flying his experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane over Monterey Bay in California. The last album released before his death was All Aboard!, a Children's album which later won a Grammy. After Death When news of John Denver's death reached Colorado, the governor of the state at the time ordered that state flags be lowered to half-mast in his memory. A sanctuary was dedicated in his honor near Rio Grande Park in Aspen, Colorado, which contains several large rocks inscribed with lyrics to a few of his songs. In 2007, a plaque was placed near the site of his fatal plane crash, inscribed with a couple lines from "Windsong". The anthology musical Back Home Again: A John Denver Holiday premiered at the Rubicon Theatre Company in November 2006. In 2007, on the 10th anniversary of his death, his family released the ''Live in the USSR'' album, a 2-hour live concert recording of one of his concerts in the Soviet Union in 1985 which includes a rendition of "Annie's Song" in Russian. Awards & Honors John Denver won a single posthumous Grammy Award, the award for Best Musical Album for Children for his final album before his unexpected death, plus the Grammy Hall of Fame Award for "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in 1998. In addition, he won the Academy of Country Music's Album of the Year award for Back Home Again in 1974 and the Country Music Association's Song of the Year (for "Back Home Again") and Entertainer of the Year awards in 1975. He also won three American Music Awards in 1975 and 1976. He became the first non-classical musician to win the Albert Schweitzer Music Award in 1993. He won the People's Choice Award and was named the honorary Poet Laureate of the State of Colorado, both in 1977. In 1979 he was named as one of ten 'Outstanding Young Men of America' by the United States Junior Chamber. In 1982 he won the Carl Sandburg's People's Poet Award. He was awarded the Presidential World Without Hunger Award in 1985 by Ronald Reagan for his work with The Hunger Project and the President's Commission on World Hunger, and he received the NASA Public Service Medal for "helping to increase awareness of space exploration by the peoples of the world" that year as well, an award usually only given to spaceflight engineers and designers. John Denver was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1996, and he later became the first inductee into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2011, and a bronze statue of him stands at the physical location at the Red Rocks Amphitheater west of Denver. A mountain in Greenland was named John Denver Peak when a group of explorers summited it in 2001. In addition, a proposed name change of Mount Sopris in Colorado to John Denver Peak in 2011 failed to gain the right support. In 2014, John Denver was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Personal Life and Philanthropy Outside of music, John Denver enjoyed numerous other interests, including hiking, skiing, rock climbing, golfing, photography, and painting, as well as nearly anything related to the outdoors, although he had stated that flying was the thing he loved most. John Denver married Anne Martell (the subject of "Annie's Song") in 1967 and they lived in Minnesota for a brief period until moving to Aspen, Colorado. They adopted two children, Zachary John and Anna Kate. John Denver's parents moved to Colorado in 1969 when his father retired from the armed forces. John and Annie later divorced in 1982, and he married Australian actress Cassandra Delaney in 1988. The two had one daughter named Jesse Belle, but they later divorced in 1993. In 1976, John Denver founded the Windstar Foundation to promote more sustainable living, and in 1977 he helped to co-found the nonprofit organization The Hunger Project, aiming to help put an end to world hunger. He campaigned for Jimmy Carter in 1976, and when he was elected president, John Denver was picked to serve on the President's Commission on World Hunger, and he wrote the song "I Want to Live" as its theme song. Discography Songs In alphabetical order: '''# * A''' * '''B * C''' * '''D * E''' * '''F * G''' * '''H * I''' * '''J * K''' * '''L * M''' * '''N * O''' * '''P * Q''' * '''R * S''' * '''T * U''' * '''V * W''' * '''Y * By album: By popularity: 1-10 * Trivia * Two of John Denver's songs were adopted as official state songs of U.S. states; "Rocky Mountain High" as a second official state song of Colorado, and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as the state song of West Virginia. Related Artists * Gordon Lightfoot * [[Peter, Paul, and Mary|'Peter, Paul, and Mary']] * Neil Diamond * Kenny Rogers Category:Singer-Songwriters Category:Folk Singers Category:Folk Artists Category:Folk Songwriters Category:Country Songwriters Category:Country Artists Category:Singers Category:Folk Musicians Category:Country Singers Category:Country Musicians Category:Songwriters